Category Archives: Favorites

Grad school is usually limited to postgraduates. The majority being 20-somethings on track to enter careers that require advanced level degrees, or maybe just hoping to coast by a little longer before entering the real world. Most programs don’t consist of 30-something executive level professionals — but that’s exactly who fills the Executive Master’s of Business Administration classes. EMBA students are on average 32-38 years old and have already spent years in a managerial role. How does a successful manager benefit from going back to school? Here are a few of the reasons why.

To finally get that promotion.

Climbing the corporate ladder can often lead to a plateau. You reach management level and you come to a point where a promotion would put you in a whole new weight class. Getting your superiors to see you at that level is not always easy. They value you as an employee but may not be ready to move you up. Earning a Master’s of Business Administration gives you new cards to bring to the table when negotiating a promotion and shows your employer you are dedicated and ready for the next step in your career. 37% of graduates expected a promotion after completing their EMBA degree. Going back to school carries a lot of weight when proving your worth for a promotion.

Gain better job security.

Unemployment may not be the media buzz of the moment but it still exists, and job security is something that everyone worries about at one time or another. Earning an advanced level degree, such as an Executive MBA, can increase job security by helping you to be more competitive and qualified. 95% is the employment rate for business professionals with an MBA. Graduating from a Master’s of Business Administration program instantly makes you more employable as you become a better asset to your company.

Expand leadership skills.

The workplace is not stagnant. Culture and technology are constantly changing, shifting the way employees think and do work. By ignoring the evolution that takes place, managers will lack the ability to run a productive team. Going back to school for an MBA brings benefits such as improved leadership skills and the opportunity to adopt new management techniques. Executives that want to stay relevant in a fast paced workforce see grad school as a way to provide their team members with better leadership.

Get a raise.

Earning more money takes time, and not everyone is patient. Some companies only award raises at milestones (such as a one or five year anniversary) or alongside promotions. In this scenario, if an employee feels they are not being properly compensated for their time they may take a position with another company rather than wait out a raise. While job jumping to reach the salary you want can work short term, it doesn’t look great on your resume — and is also kind of exhausting. A better alternative is warranting a raise by going to grad school and completing an advanced business degree. Some companies reward employees for completing an MBA or EMBA by offering a bonus incentive, and many executives choose to cease this opportunity rather than quitting.

Become an entrepreneur.

Business professionals don’t just go back to school to move up within their company, many do so to gain the knowledge and skills to start one of their own. The average MBA graduate will see annual business revenue of $128,569 just one year after completing their degree. Rather than go into business ownership blindly, an MBA teaches an entrepreneur how to build from the bottom up and manage a successful company. Strategy, planning and profit are all topics that are taught in an MBA program and can help entrepreneurs tackle the common struggles that come along with a startup.

Occasionally I’ll get some pretty bad hiccups due to my heart condition. Nothing extreme, but they sure do hurt.

About two days ago after lunch with a friend, I started getting them bad. She could tell it was uncomfortable for me just by the look on my face after each loud hiccup.

“Did you know there’s a remedy for hiccups? I saw it on the news,” she said.

“Really?” I said bewildered (I’ve tried every crazy hiccup remedy ever created). I was intrigued.

“You’re going to think I’m crazy… It’s a lollipop. A girl invented it to help cure her hiccups when she was 13 years old!”

Well, I was a bit skeptical but I nonetheless interested. If a lollipop could cure my hiccups, I wanted 100.

I did a bit of digging and found out what my friend was talking about. It’s a product called Hiccupops – How To Get Rid of Hiccups For Good. I was very impressed with what I read. Apparently it was created as a cheap and easy way to cure the inventors hiccups when she was a little girl. Below is a video I found of her explaining what they are and how they are made

Inevitably I pre-ordered a bunch of them. If they work, I will be very happy. The only real hiccup “remedy” I’ve gotten to work for me is holding my breath and drinking a full glass of water (while holding my nose). But I can’t exactly do that in public without looking like a crazy person…

Fall is my favorite season. The kids are back at school, the weather cools down, and I get to enjoy my favorite activities with my family :).

It wasn’t always my favorite season. Growing up, my family moved almost every year for my fathers job. Since both of my parents worked full time, I was placed in after school programs in the Fall. By “after school programs” I mean being bored to death in a library being forced to do my homework. I wanted to be outside, enjoying the beauty of the changing colors. When I grew up I knew I would spend as much time outside enjoying this beautiful season and that is exactly what I do.

Today’s post is a collection of my absolute favorite family-friendly activities to enjoy during the Autumn season.

Every one of my friends thinks starting a blog easy easy, and that’s true. The physical process of starting a blog is pretty painless. I had this blog developed in less than two weeks by an old friend.

What’s not easy is writing.

I didn’t know that before I started this blog. When everything was completed and I was staring at a blank page, it was a bit scary. Where the heck do I start?

That’s when I put away the Word document and started to do some research on other bloggers and their methods. I’ve gained a lot from their posts and figure that the least I could do is mention some of them in a blog post.

There was really nothing else I could do. You can only watch so much television and I had yet to discover how to blog (I wish I had). So every day I would sit outside on our back porch with a pile of books and read for hours until my husband came home.

I would tell my friends and they all had the same reaction, “Really? Isn’t that boring after a while?” To be honest, that’s what I thought it would be before I started. But I decided since I spent a lot of money buying books, I might as well actually read them.

Side note, yes I am one of the very few people in the world that still buys books in the store (not ebooks). Remember those things filled with paper? Haha :).

I had never been one to sit down and really got into a book. In fact, the only real reading I had done before was some romantic novels when I was in my twenties.

This time I wasn’t reading for pleasure (pun intended), I was reading to learn how to be the best mom possible. You see, when I was pregnant, I was scared half to death of being a mother. Maybe it was the hormones causing my emotions to spike, but I would wake up panicing at night.

In my mind there were hundreds of “What if’s”…

What if I forget something? What if my baby comes out unhealthy? What if he gets lost and I cannot find him?

Reading parenting books was a way to put my mind at ease. What is funny is that there was an overarching theme in all of the books: “Don’t worry.” Yes, it seems stupid but it’s true.

You can do all the preparing in the world but it won’t keep your son or daughter out of danger 100% of the time. You just have to give them care, love and affection – that will guide you along this wonderful journey we call motherhood.

Although that was the theme of most of the books I read, there were some really great takeaways in terms of how to adjust to different milestones and specifics of dealing with certain problems as a mother, such as postpartum depression.